Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
and Chennai (India) 2024-2025

Day 3: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia & National Mosque of Malaysia

 

13 December Kuala Lumpur
In the afternoon I got a taxi to one of my favorite Kuala Lumpur museums, the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (RM 20) https://iamm.org.my/. It’s a very beautiful modern building with extensive Islamic patterns, domes, and even an inverted dome. I started with a special show that had just opened today—“Oceans that Speak: Islam and the Emergence of the Malay World”—that tells of how ports on the Malay peninsula played a central role in trade from ancient times to that of the colonial powers, eager to profit off the spice trade, and how Islam replaced earlier faiths and how European steamships aided dissemination of Islamic scripture and scholarship. The large exhibit area displayed many historic artifacts, paintings, and photos.
 
Next I headed to some of the dozen permanent galleries to see Islamic craftsmanship from cultures of Ottoman, Persian, Spain, India, Central Asia, as well as the Malay world. The many Korans and other books reveal intricate illuminations. Astrolabes show early Islamic skill with the sciences. Jewelry glitters and paintings shine in the Mughal exhibits. Ceramics, textiles, metalwork, and woodwork abound throughout the galleries. I especially like the detailed models of mosques and holy sites from around the world.
 
From the museum, a short walk led to the National Mosque of Malaysia with its striking blue-and-turquoise tiled 16-pointed star roof and 73-meter-high minaret. I arrived during visiting hours and stepped inside, then strolled the covered courtyard areas past tranquil pools.
 
I walked back to the center, passing the old Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, an extravagant many-domed structure completed in 1917 with a “Neo-Moorish/Mughal/Indo-Saracenic/Neo-Saracenic” style. Today the huge station looks a bit down on its luck as passenger trains no longer stop here since the KL Sentral station took over in 2001, though it’s still a stop on a light-rail line. I continued walking to the South Indian vegetarian restaurant Restoran MTR 1924 https://mtr1924malaysia.com/ where I had the ‘mini-meal’—a very filling and tasty thali despite its name—along with a mango lassi and a masala tea, then I walked back to my Airbnb.

 

Day 4: UR-MU Urban Museum

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